To Marry for Love
by 24green.roses
Summary: “People look at me sometimes, with those looks of jealousy, and sometimes awe, but underneath it all, I don’t know if someone loves me, or my title.” Jon x Thayet one-shot


**To Marry for Love**

**Thayet x Jonathan one-shot**

**Setting: During that time in Lioness Rampant after the downfall of Roger, and everything's beginning to settle down. George hasn't proposed to Alanna yet.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"Marry me, Thayet."

"I, can't, Jon. I'm sorry." Thayet turned away from Jon on the bench they were sitting on together in the palace gardens. Thayet looked over a ways and saw the royal guards posted all around them, she had to keep her voice low, or Corus would know by tomorrow that she refused the hand of the King.

Jonathan turned to Thayet, "Why Thayet, I love you, you know that, and I know you love me, why are you saying no?"

Thayet sighed and looked out into the gardens, "Do you know what it is like to me, Jon?" When she heard no response, she continued, "Do you know what it's like to be called the most beautiful women in the world, the 'peerless', as they now are calling me?" Thayet paused as the guards turned to look at her, she needed them here to show she wasn't doing anything dishonorable, but sometimes, it was just plain bothersome. "It's not easy," she said quieter. "People look at me sometimes, with those looks of jealousy, and sometimes awe, but underneath it all, I don't know if someone loves _me_, or my _title_."

Jon looked to Thayet confused, "You really think that I love your beauty and not you?"

Thayet shook her head and shrugged simultaneously, "I don't know, Jon, but yes, I am afraid."

"You don't think that maybe I feel the same? I go under that every day too, Thayet. Women throw themselves at me all the time, because I am king, because I rule Tortall, because I now possess the Dominion Jewel. I have to go through the same thing everyday. I know you better then you think Thayet, why are you _really_ saying no?"

"In all truth and honesty, it's because," Thayet looked to a flower across the way from where they sat, "…you _are_ royalty." Jon was quiet, and Thayet continued without looking to see his expression. "I was kicked out of Sarain, labeled an exile, and you know why? It was because I was the daughter of the nobility. I was intermingled in that mosh pit of a thing called court." Thayet took a breath, "And so, when I came here, I decided to not marry so high up, to just live a quiet life somewhere, but it obviously hasn't worked for the best. I don't want to be a piece on a chess board in the game of politics, or on a list of those to be assassinated if some conflict breaks out among the nobility, I don't want my life uprooted again. I love it here, I just want to live peacefully."

It grew quiet, Jon looked around to the guards and seeing none of them were watching, slowly inched his hand into Thayet's, she flinched, but regained composure as she wasn't supposed to be doing anything but talking to Jon, "Live peacefully with me Thayet. I love you, I want to spend my life with you, I'll make sure you get the life you want, and you will never be an exile again."

Thayet weighed her options, she did love Jon, she loved him since the moment she saw him that night with Alanna and George. She was just afraid. He was the king of Tortall, and she was just an exile from Sarain, how could she bring any honor to him? "I don't know."

Jon looked over at Thayet and saw perhaps it wasn't the best time. "Very well, I see proposal is not what you're looking for right now, but Thayet, I need to ask you something, why are you _going_ to marry?"

"What do you mean?"

"What are you looking for in your future husband?"

Thayet sighed, "Love."

Jon nodded and squeezed Thayet's hand in his, "Love. Love is something I feel for you Thayet, I love you." Thayet opened her mouth to say something, but Jon continued, "I love the way that your eyes are the only way to tell what you are truly thinking. I love the way that when you're angry, your smile gets more and more sincere. I love how you care so dearly for any lost child on the street, how a crossbow is much more at home on your back then a shawl, how you seem to think the world loves your beauty, but I know, they love you as well. For I do too. I love _you_ Thayet, not the most beautiful women in the world."

Thayet turned to Jon, no man had ever complemented her in such a way, no man ever looked beyond her beauty, no man had ever seen past it, but him. "I," she swallowed, it was too late to turn back, since she laid eyes on Jon, it was already too late. "I love you too, Jon." Jon turned his bright blue eyes on her, taken aback. "I also don't love the king or Tortall, I love Jonathan of Conte. I was just scared to fall for it again."

Jon turned to Thayet and smiled. "I finally think we found the real deal, Thayet." She looked to him questioningly, "Each other." Jon leaned over and kissed Thayet on the forehead. "If you love me Thayet, won't you marry me?" Thayet looked into Jon's eyes, and realized, there was no point in fighting it, Jon was right, she loved him, and he loved her. She responded with a smile.

**********

It was the day of the wedding, and Thayet was beaming like a child receiving her first doll. She sat in her chair as her maids and friends attended her. She had fetched Alanna for the wedding, she brought them together, she had to be here. Thayet hid a smile as Alanna was trying to avoid being in the way of those pampering Thayet. Thayet smiled at Alanna, who after dodging another maid, smiled understandingly. Alanna knew it was Thayet's special day.

After all the preparations were done, Thayet walked down the hall toward the wedding chamber, all her maids, and ladies in waiting trailing after her. The royal guards opened the door to the chamber, and the lights seem to shine directly at Thayet, and she just barely avoided raising her hand to shade her eyes. But, as the lights faded to an acceptable glow, Thayet looked up to see Jon.

As she walked down the aisle, Thayet began to think how much she really loved this man. She loved how he smiled more toward those he hated then those he loved, how he always tried to avoid his royal guard, how he looked outside sometimes and smiled just because it was beautiful, how Jon's eyes glistened when he wasn't wearing his crown.

Jon gave a hand and Thayet took in, stepping up next to her _soon-to-be_ husband, the man she would spend forever with. Thayet began to glow with excitement. It was all the little things about Jon that she loved, and together, she knew they would never have regrets.

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

**It's short, I know, but it felt right. :D**

**Everyone always writes Alanna x Jon fics. I don't like them together, so this is my reason why Thayet should be with Jon. :)**

**R&R**


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